


We're Nakama Now

by R_S



Category: One Piece
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Nakama Feels, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 16:11:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9279452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_S/pseuds/R_S
Summary: Robin's always been half looking for the Nakama Saul told her about, but it's been twenty years.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

Gentle, as the seas had not been to her. Robin had suddenly found herself… that word. It’s definition long known to her. Echoing in dark corners of shadowy hallways in her mind. Spiders and webs spun about there, salivating over her nightmares. Misplacing real thoughts as easily as they are made.

 

“We’re Nakama!” An arm stretched out. Snapping back into a normal human shape with beer sloshing in the mug he’d grasped in one fist. “Kanpai!!” When Luffy’s drained the cup and tossed it aside, the Strawhat Captain is up on his sandaled feet. Dancing. Even though there’s no real music. Usopp and Chopper are cheering for him. Clapping their hands and hooves in the air.

 

Nakama.

 

The man with green hair sitting at Robin’s side is refilling his mug with sake. Having already put the beer in his belly. “You’re not drinking?” Zoro asks, without putting his jade eyes on her. Settling back against the inner wall of their ship, the swordsman is resting his head back on white railing.

Robin’s lips curve, but it’s not technically a smile she manages. “Is that a problem?” she asks. Fingertips clutching the rim of her cup.

“My sweet plum-kissed Flower of the Sea!” Robin’s half readied a fleur of blooming arms to strike the man in his blue pinstriped suit. Sanji’s blonde hair fluttering nearer to her than she’d normally like people to be. “May I bring you anything?” He’s… unwittingly… too close.   

“Oi, Love-cook. Why don’t you take a swim. Unkink that eyebrow of yours.”

A clank of steel toes on steel katana rings. I high shrill. The Strawhat Chef suspended with his leg flung high. A tray held undisturbed in his hand. The impossible kick had been blocked by a half-drawn blade from a black sheath at their swordsman’s hip. The leer on Zoro’s face most owlish. A line of white teeth glinting as he’s goading the other man.

“Jeeze you guys are so _rude_!” Nami. The red haired woman sits down next to Robin. She’s got a mug in her hands, amber liquid topped with a bit of thick froth visible over the rim. “Go do something useful and turn us a half degree towards the sunset. The Log has been shifting all day!”

Both men scoff at the end of their ‘match’. They seem to have them all the time. At a moment’s notice. Since Robin’s been on board she’d started keeping score. Though she hasn’t yet decided if she’ll share that information with anyone.

“You’re not drinking.” Nami’s voice is just a little louder than Luffy and Chopper laughing. Usopp’s shrieks. The low rumble of raising voices from the two men that had been so recently dismissed drifting back down across the deck.

“This is a very attentive crew.” She says. Staring down into the opaque liquid. Her reflection is there. A little different than she remembered.

Nami lets a swallow of alcohol swim over her tongue. Welcoming that spin and burn behind her eyes as the winds change. Robin quiet beside her. “Is there anything you need?” she asks. Gold eyes watching Luffy and Chopper roll about. Usopp’s bent over laughing. He’ll puke if he keeps that up.

“Need?” Robin’s fingers tighten around her mug, blinking.

 

Nami’s only intended to glance back. For her question to bring up an answer like ‘more books’ or ‘a little piece and quiet’. She’d not tried to stab. To leave this woman… in tears?

Robin’s hands come up, and more than the usual pair. Covering her face for the tears she can’t stop. She coughs. Her throat too tight as she labors for air.

She can’t breathe.

This could not have been what Saul meant, could it? Nakama. Is she allowed to believe in dreams anymore? That someone would come out of the wild unlooked for. That they’d break their break their bread, and share their drink. Stand beside her, protecting her dream and give her what she needs… It’d been twenty years. Twenty years of running from the World Government. Finding paths she could through thieves and liars.   

It’s the hands on her shoulders. The ones that don’t belong to her. Those hands Robin shies from, but they hold tight. She’s caught. Oh god, she’s caught? “Clutch!”

Luffy’s hooked himself around Zoro’s torso. Yanking back to crack the man’s spine practically in half. Which is what would have happened if his Captain hadn’t just saved him. Only Luffy is fast enough. Even when he’s flat on his back goofing off with Chopper. The only one mindful enough to sense the tide that rose red in his newest nakama. The woman they’d taken with them after Alabasta. She’s not… bad.   

Luffy rolls out from under his swordsman, kneeling on the deck. Robin’s eyes are wide open. Sweeps of pink petals dissolving on the sea air, where she’d had made a shield between them and her. It had not worked. It had not hidden her. Eyes like smoke and violets fill with tears. She’s torn backward, pressing against the storeroom wall.

Yet those sandaled feet follow her. Sweeping on the deck as Merry rises and falls on Grand Line swells. “Oi? Why are you fighting us? I thought we were nakama now?” the whine of Luffy’s voice helped tremendously Nami’s sense of maturity when she’s dragging him by one stretchy cheek. Away from Robin. Shoving her captain into the galley. Usopp and Chopper follow. Both of them still quite frightened of the Ms. All Sunday of a recently defeated Boroque Works.

Zoro, however. Remained. Pale green eyes put on the ground. Balancing his weight from one foot to the other as the deck moved. In the peripheral of his eyes Robin is arrested. Arms hugged up around her. As if she’s waiting for some judgement to fall.

The rattling of Zoro loosening his sash-ties gives reason for Robin to peek. Open her eyes a sliver to see the swordsman setting three pommels up against the white rail of their ship. With both hands out to his sides, Zoro dares to approach the dangerous woman. Trained as a spy, an assassin. In more than one massive criminal organization. He respects her as a user of the Hana Hana no Mi. Making her a Paramecia, the same type as Luffy.

“You have nightmares?” Asks the disarmed swordsman. Careful steps forward, and his eyes down.

Robin sifts, and her arms come unwound to lie flat on the wall. As if she could sink into it and get away. Blinking hard, she shakes her head. The faint echoes of wild laughter, screaming. The last anguished sound Saul made when he…

She turns away from Zoro, towards the sea. Putting both hands on the rail. Knowing the swordsman is watching her. She looks down. It’s still daylight out. The sun dancing playfully on silver and blue water so deep a person never sees the bottom. The ocean had always been deep, black, eternal. Ever since Robin can remember. To be unable to swim all her life, she had always thought of it like the flying of a bird. A form of freedom from any prison. But both were impossible for her. And she is trapped again.

The warmth on her bare shoulder pries a gasp out of the woman. Zoro’s fingers fanning out. Rough and calloused. “Nico Robin?”

She sees his eyes are away, and she’s glad he’s a sense of how hard this is. “Did something happen to you?” she asks. Forcing her hands to relax on the rail. She can see the swordsman smile. A different grin to the one he’d been wearing before.

“Aye. But I tell myself that nothing happened.”

Waves lap against the hull. Spray sparkling just above the bulk of flowing water. Crystal clear waters where they peer down and see long reeds, and count fat fish. “I do that too, sometimes.” Her elbows meet the rail, and Robin hangs long black hair over the sea. “I won’t get comfortable.” She says. “Attacking a nakama, is a serious crime. I’ll leave at the next port.”

Even as the words left her lips, Robin wept inside. What if these were the ones Saul had promised would come? Nakama. Who’d break their bread. Share their home. Ask, and care. The people that will find out what she _needs_. But of course. They aren’t. Because it can never be. Tears well in Robins eyes, falling into the sea. She’d been told. Over and over. She is a demon, her very existence a crime in this world.

Faint, almost-concealed sobs leave Robin’s back curled like a boiled lobster. Zoro looking out at the sea. So incredibly vast. They’d picked up a real survivor, out here in the middle of the Grand Line. Knowing her would be slow to come. If they ever got there. Her fingers are cold under his touch. “No you won’t.” and he’s aware that woman is trembling. Sobbing. That she’s a sword’s edge from that place sanity takes you, when safety finally comes. It’s a place no one talks about. That no songs are written for. When running isn’t going to be a necessity for staying alive anymore, but just another reason to feel the wind rushing by. When everything ever known is turned about. How frightened and alone she must be. “You’ll stay right here. We’re your nakama now.”  

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! This was a bit of a free-write that I got encouraged to share. So here it is. Comments are welcome!!


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